The Number Seven
by WeWereJustChildren
Summary: Aradia hates what he did to her but after over 300 hundred years will she possibly be able to forgive him? Does he even care about her anymore? Does she want him back in her life? Is there really anything left for her here? Does he even remember her? So many questions but maybe the biggest one of all, why does she love the number seven? Marshall Lee/OC
1. A Memory of a Birthday

Aradia sat under the shade of a tree in the woods, she'd been there all night and now the sun was up it would be difficult for her to move. A beam of light made it's way through the canopy of leaves about half a meter away from her. Aradia reached out for it, only to pull her hand back in pain. She wanted to cry. Aradia hated not being able to feel the sun's warmth, to not be able to walk through a field during the day. She hated what she was.

Aradia had been a vampire for the past three hundred and thirty six years and she still wasn't used to it. She hated being stuck at sixteen for the rest of her never-ending life and most of all she hated **Him**. No, that wasn't true, she didn't hate _Him, _she hated what he'd done to her and that caused her to feel hurt, betrayed and broken. She remembered the day she became a vampire as if it were only yesterday...

_"Hey there blue-eyes." Aradia grinned as she heard the familiar voice sound from behind her, she turned round only to find he wasn't there. A frown set on the girls face, it was after sunset so why was he still hiding? "Okay, okay, wipe that look off your face I'll come out now." Aradia could hear the laughter in his voice and she couldn't help but smiling. "Happy Birthday Dia." The voice said as a thin silver chain wrapped round her neck and a black mop of hair appeared out of nowhere, behind her. Looking down, Aradia saw hanging on the chain was a silver locket in the shape of a heptagon with a letter 'A' carved into it. Once more Aradia turned round to face her closest friend. "It's beautiful Marsh." She said looking up into the boy's dark eyes, too dark to tell what colour they really were "I don't know where you found a heptagon locket, I hope you didn't go to too much trouble." She smiled up at him sweetly and he grinned back down at her, revealing two very sharp looking canines. "You said you like the number seven, so I got you a shape with seven sides, It's no big deal, you're worth it." Aradia found it quite sweet that he'd remembered her saying how she loved the number seven. _

_They lay in the grass under the cherry tree in Aradia's back garden for hours, just talking. They'd been friends for two years now and had grown quite close, but that's another story. It was only a few hours till sunrise when Aradia said it. _

_"You know, it's kind of strange how I'm going to grow up and you'll just stay the same forever Marshall." She said, in a kind factual way. Marshall Lee frowned at this and began to fidget, suddenly he sat up and dragged Aradia with him. "Hey-!" Aradia began but stopped when she saw the look on his face. Marshall Lee seemed sad and angry at the same time and Aradia wasn't quite sure what to do. "Aradia," Marshall began and Aradia knew he was being very serious since he used her full name, "You can't grow up." He said it so calmly that Aradia was now very unsure of what was going on. "You can't grow old, you can't die, I need you." Marshall Lee carried on. Aradia began to wobble to her feet "The sun will becoming up soon, Marsh, You better-" He cut her off. It happened so fast that Aradia wasn't aware of what happened till she woke up hours later, no longer under the cherry tree. In fact she wasn't at all sure where she was. As the world began to refocus she started to hear Marshall's voice. _

_"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm..." He kept repeating to himself over and over again. Slowly Aradia sat up, and ran a hand through her long blonde hair, it was then that she noticed her usually pale creamy skin now had a greyish hue to it. It all came flooding back to her, Aradia reached for her neck to find two dry spots of blood under her finger tips. Aradia began to choke back the tears that were threatening to flood from her eyes. Marshall's arms wrapped round the distraught girl. "I'm so sorry." He kept repeating, Aradia pushed him away and the tears broke through the barrier. "y-you said you'd never hurt me." She whispered, her hand covering her eyes. "You said you'd never hurt me and now I'm dead." She carried on, more to tell herself than to tell him. Marshall didn't know what to do with himself, it was true, he'd told her he'd never hurt her, he just couldn't stand the thought of watching her get older every year and eventually watching her die..._

Aradia had fled from Marshall Lee's home soon after that. She learned the hard way that the sun was now an enemy. Over the years she'd watched her parents die and her younger brother and his family and their family till eventually she just gave up. It hurt too much to watch, never working up enough courage to speak to any of them. Aradia kept to the shadows, lived in the dark and hated every moment she spent not getting older. She played with the silver locket around her neck, she couldn't make her self throw it away or even take it off and it was a constant reminder of that night. She heard things about Marshall Lee, King of the Vampires, how he was mean and like to hurt people. She hadn't seen him since that night, she'd grown good at hiding and maybe he had even stopped looking. Aradia sit under the tree in the woods, waiting for enough shadow to form so that she could move on. The day she was born - and the day that she died - was two weeks away, she needed to mentally prepare herself for all the memories that would most likely haunt her that day, like they had for the past three hundred and thirty six years. Being three hundred and fifty two was not a piece of cake.


	2. Uninvited Guests

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Fionna asked as she struggled to pull herself up onto another ledge. Cake used her stretching abilities to help her sister onto the ledge before climbing up herself, "Because Marshall Lee asked you to and you've got a secret little crush on him so couldn't say no, Fi." She replied and Fionna blushed "That's not true Cake." Fionna replied and turned away from the cat to climb up the next ledge. The two had been climbing the mountain for hours looking for a secret cave that was supposedly hidden within its rock. When they'd asked Marshall why they needed to find the cave he'd got mad but they couldn't say no to an adventure and Fionna couldn't say no to the vampire king. They'd been searching for hours but so far had found nothing and the two were about ready to give up. Standing on the next ledge Fionna looked around and sighed "It's no use Cake; there isn't a cave on this mountain." She frowned, _Marshall's gonna be disappointed_ she thought. The girl sat down on medium-sized rock and was surprised when it sank into the ground it lay on. "Whoa, rocks are weird around here." Fionna said standing up again and looking at the sunken rock curiously. "I may be going a little craycray but I think your behind may have just found the cave." Cake replied and Fionna looked up to see a thin crack had appeared on the mountain face.

* * *

Aradia was lounging on the sofa in her cave when she heard the noise of the hidden door opening. She froze. Slowly, she pulled herself up from the sofa and became invisible just as two beings fell into her home and by fell I mean literally _fell _into the cave. Aradia had put the door in the ceiling and since she could float this wasn't an issue for her. Aradia watched as one of them - a cat - stood up and brushed itself off. "You okay Fi?" it asked and it's arm stretched out to pick the human one up. "Yeah, I'm okay Cake." The human one said and the cat nodded. The two looked around Aradia's home as Aradia herself remained invisible. "This place is bad Fionna, my tail is totally frizzing out!" The cat said trying to smooth down her tail fur. _This is my chance _Aradia thought and in her best menacing voice spoke out loud "This place is _very_ bad," She floated over to the cat and patted her on the head, the cat freaked out and looked at her companion. The human had drawn a sword and was now walking the room cautiously, turning in circles. Aradia laughed gently. The human began waving the sword round randomly, she nearly hit Aradia who was about to give her a scare. "Hey, watch here you're waving that thing." Aradia said becoming visible and floating up slightly higher to put distance between her and the sword "It might not kill me but it could still hurt." The cat and the human looked up at the floating vampire a dumbfounded expression on both their faces. Aradia laughed again and did a backwards roll in the air before settling herself back down on the sofa. "Now," She said calmly linking her fingers together behind her head "Who are you and what are you doing in my home?"

The human and the cat looked at each other and the cat nodded. The human put away her sword and looked at Aradia "I'm Fionna and this is Cake." She said pointing to the cat, who Aradia noticed was keeping her distance. "I suppose I should introduce myself too," Aradia sighed, she hadn't met anyone new in a while, to be honest she hadn't met anyone at all in a few years. "My name is Aradia, you can probably tell by my sharp pointy teeth," She opened her mouth and ran her tongue across them, "That I am a vampire." Cakes tail frizzed at the sight of the sharp teeth and Aradia laughed again "Don't worry I don't bite. I stick to drinking colours." A sad looked crossed Aradia's face but she wiped it away quick enough. "Now, why are you here?" The vampire asked. The two companions began to explain how The Vampire King had told them they needed to find the cave in the mountain – they left out the part about Fionna's crush – and Aradia listened until they had finished.

"So he continues to search for me." Aradia mumbled to herself. She looked at her uninvited guests "You must return to Marshall and tell him you couldn't find a cave." She told them seriously, the two looked at her puzzled. "You can't tell him about me, please?" She asked gently. Fionna looked at Cake and tilted her head to the side slightly "I can't lie to Marshall, Cake." Aradia recognized the look the girl wore on her face, she'd worn it herself for two years. She laughed sadly, "You poor girl." Aradia looked at Fionna, her eyes filled with pity. "I guess if you can't lie to Marshall Lee, then I'll have to move out, again." She walked away from her guests and over to some drawers, which she opened and began to pull things out and throw into boxes that lay at the side edges of the room. Aradia was always prepared to leave. "What'choo running from Marshall for anyway?" Cake asked, Aradia stopped what she was doing and just froze. Fionna could see the vampire didn't want to answer that question and as much as she wanted to know the answer, she didn't want to give the vampire any reason to start sucking blood. "We won't tell Marshall." Fionna sighed "You must have a good reason to be running from him if you'd consider moving house just to hide from him." She shrugged. Aradia smiled, she had no reason to trust either of these people but something about them just told her she could.

The two girls left not long after that and Aradia curled up on the sofa again. Her birthday was in two days. She held her locket - still around her neck - tightly in one hand and whispered to the empty room, "Stop looking Marshall Lee, you'll never find me."


End file.
